“Thinking Out Loud” is the fourth post published after I started this blog in July 2006. Because it’s Slow Blogging Saturday, and it’s likely that only two people have read this previously, and I still believe what I wrote, here it is in almost-instant replay.

Anyone who stumbles onto this blog is immediately aware that I am a complete novice in the blog world. I’m learning by reading lots of blogs; getting a sense of some of the reasons people blog. I’m thinking about why I want to get into it myself, and whether I want to continue.

It seems to me that the main reason people blog is to have impact. Whether their blog is primarily used for venting, educating, resourcing, friendship or sharing all sorts of topics or things, it all comes down to the purpose of influencing others.

So I’ve been thinking. As a follower of Christ, what is/should be the ultimate purpose of whatever I put on my blog? How does that relate to how I want to be personally perceived by those who may, by some remote happening, read it? For me, writing in a public way is a big responsibility. Maybe that’s because I have seldom done it. Maybe someday I will read this and think I was taking this all too seriously, but right now I think it’s important. The thought of my words being ‘out there’ startles me a bit. Influence, even though it may well be slight, is serious business. Especially because I want all that I do and say to glorify God and serve his purpose. “We make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him” 2 Cor. 5:9. If that’s not the deal, I most certainly should click ‘delete this blog’ right now.

Oswald Chambers says, “My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life.” He reminds me that whatever I write and whatever is perceived and impacts others stems from who I really am in the mundane grind of everyday life. Sweet water doesn’t flow from a sour well. It renews my aim to please God moment by moment in all that that means, and through that he might use what I write publicly for his glory.